Acquiring and providing player information by means of a multiple sensor system

Abstract

A device ( 120 ) for acquiring and providing information which can be associated with a football player, said device comprising: an acceleration sensor ( 129 ) for detecting accelerations acting on the devices; a memory unit ( 121 ) for storing measured acceleration values with associated time stamps and an ID associated with the device ( 120 ); and a radio unit ( 128 ) for receiving a first radio signal ( 150 ) with a first time stamp, wherein the first radio signal represents a deformation of a ball, and for transmitting a second radio signal ( 160 ) including the ID associated with the device ( 120 ) in case that a check of the values in the memory unit shows that an acceleration was detected by the device at the corresponding time.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A ball comprising an acceleration sensor, a pressure sensor, and a control unit for comparing a shot power measured by means of the pressure sensor and acting on the ball with a shot power determined by means of the acceleration sensor, wherein, if the shot power value determined by the acceleration sensor is greater than the shot power value determined by the pressure sensor, the control unit performs the steps of: generating a corrected value via adding a correction value to the shot power value determined by the pressure sensor and performs at least one of storing the corrected value or transmitting the corrected value to a readout device. 
     
     
       2. A system, comprising:
 a device for acquiring and providing information which can be associated with a football player, said device comprising:
 an acceleration sensor for detecting accelerations acting on the device; 
 a memory unit for storing measured acceleration values with associated time stamps and an ID associated with the device; and 
 a radio unit for receiving a first radio signal with a first time stamp, wherein the first radio signal represents a deformation of a ball, and for transmitting a second radio signal including the ID associated with the device in case that a check of the values in the memory unit shows that an acceleration was detected by the device at a corresponding time; and 
 
 a ball comprising the acceleration sensor, a pressure sensor, and a control unit for comparing a shot power measured by means of the pressure sensor and acting on the ball with a shot power determined by means of the acceleration sensor, wherein, if the shot power value determined by the acceleration sensor is greater than the shot power value determined by the pressure sensor, the control unit performs the steps of: generating a corrected value via adding a correction value to the shot power value determined by the pressure sensor and performs at least one of storing the corrected value or transmitting the corrected value to a readout device. 
 
     
     
       3. A system, comprising:
 a device for acquiring and providing information which can be associated with a football player, said device comprising:
 a magnetic field sensor for detecting and measuring a magnetic field, preferably the earth's magnetic field; 
 an acceleration sensor for detecting accelerations acting on the device; 
 a memory unit for storing measured acceleration values and measured magnetic field values with associated time stamps; and 
 a control unit for calculating a covered path based on a time pattern of the measured magnetic field values and acceleration values; and 
 
 a ball comprising an acceleration sensor, a pressure sensor, and a control unit for comparing a shot power measured by means of the pressure sensor and acting on the ball with a shot power determined by means of the acceleration sensor, wherein, if the shot power value determined by the acceleration sensor is greater than the shot power value determined by the pressure sensor, the control unit performs the steps of: generating a corrected value via adding a correction value to the shot power value determined by the pressure sensor and performs at least one of storing the corrected value or transmitting the corrected value to a readout device.